FB says in contact with SL to identify, remove hate speech

Responding to Sri Lanka's temporary ban on social media including Facebook, the company has said it is in contact with the Sri Lankan government and non-governmental organizations to support efforts to identify and remove hate speech.

“We have clear rules against hate speech and incitement to violence and work hard to keep it off our platform. We are responding to the situation in Sri Lanka and are in contact with the government and non-governmental organizations to support efforts to identify and remove such content,” Facebook has said in an email to the CNBC.

The CNBC article written by its Technology Reporter John Shinal was focused on how Sri Lanka did what the US can't, which was pulling the plug on Facebook over hate speech and fake news.

It said the ban in Sri Lanka came after several years in which critics have said Facebook and the government were not doing enough to prevent the spread of such harmful posts.

Comments - 21

Gammay Tomiya Monday, 12 March 2018 11:35 PM

This social media ban is mainly to silence opposition and for those blaming GoSL or bad governance.

Vocal Media Tuesday, 13 March 2018 05:20 PM

Anyway, this is better than white vans and disappearences!!

mohamed Tuesday, 13 March 2018 02:36 AM

NGO desperalty wanted FaceBook to be unblocked as its the main strategy used to instigate viloance - why all these westerns counties are behind this than loosing human life ? -

Sunil Tuesday, 13 March 2018 02:40 AM

This was essential to stop fake news being spread by hateful people in order to curb unnecessary violence from spreading.. in the nick of time ..

Indian help Tuesday, 13 March 2018 09:30 AM

Do if you can or get the Indian help. World over including face book on their services.

nick Tuesday, 13 March 2018 04:20 AM

government does not know what is hate speech as they openly let racism leaders to carry out meeting so best to ask public i mean decent public not those whi are uncivilized & looters via DM Android App

Mhf Tuesday, 13 March 2018 04:34 AM

FB's controls are inadequate. They could have done better.

Oliver Dias Tuesday, 13 March 2018 06:27 AM

Simply because 18 year old youngster initiated a communal voilance , and the lethargy and inefficiency of the state to take timely preventive measures to curb a violence it is not appropriate to ban the FB , with the ulterior motive to hide the corruptions and all wrongdore of the government's without further delay , as now situation is back to normal 100 % . Promise of the government to have it only for a limited period of 74 hours but now it seems they may continue it indefinitely

Asoka Tuesday, 13 March 2018 08:30 AM

Spot on Sir...

Triple X Tuesday, 13 March 2018 06:37 AM

At last

Sunil Tuesday, 13 March 2018 08:51 AM

Opposition should stay clam. They can restart it once the ban is lifed

Indika Tuesday, 13 March 2018 08:53 AM

Its an appropriate move of the GoSL to hide all corrupts behind. Public are no fools...go ahead and see the consequences in the coming elections.

Arnold Tuesday, 13 March 2018 09:04 AM

No need to ban the whole thing. The govt should establish a hotline and email address where people can complain about racist accounts. And those accounts could be deleted by coordinating with Facebook, twitter and other platforms.

Older Citizen Tuesday, 13 March 2018 09:09 AM

Keep Facebook completely out and give us our craving peaceful family time, like good old days! Facebook is worse than cancer!

Ishan Tuesday, 13 March 2018 04:38 PM

Thing is there is a good side to social media too. It would be very hard for me to keep in touch with friends and relatives who have gone abroad or lives far away if not for facebook. I get that some individuals use social media to spread hate and negativity. But banning them altogether is not the solution. Let's not throw the baby with the bath water.

DHA Tuesday, 13 March 2018 09:20 AM

Most of the hate speeches are made in worship places while preeching this is where the root of this problem exist...

Mahinda Tuesday, 13 March 2018 09:20 AM

Why don’t we run the country on Facebook and not ministers.

Lord Wolfstein Tuesday, 13 March 2018 12:16 PM

To use the social media you have simply to change the IP to another country

mnsmart Tuesday, 13 March 2018 12:55 PM

with social media platforms, its easy to identify culprits. but the government is inactive to do so

Nishantha Tuesday, 13 March 2018 01:38 PM

It had better to controlled hate speech on social media because people release hate speech without considering the impact of the same. Also, there are people who can be converted through these types of hate speeches and they may act as idiots.

G.M.Jayawardena Tuesday, 13 March 2018 04:07 PM

Members of the government should stop first in this regards before they ask others to refrain giving hate of speeches ....

Add comment

Comments will be edited (grammar, spelling and slang) and authorized at the discretion of Daily Mirror online. The website also has the right not to publish selected comments.